Teachers Are Awesome

So the teacher's strike in Chicago does not end tomorrow.

I wish there were a better solution.  I'm surprised at the demonizing of teachers.  Being a teacher myself (albeit, I haven't taught for a year since I have been in school), I have not met any teacher who would leave their children out of school for selfish reasons.  Pay sucks?  Benefits suck?  Teachers would quit.  But when it comes to the support teachers need- textbooks, safe classrooms, comfortable classrooms, support from administrators... I have been there.  I know that when I left Arizona I almost quite teaching- because I care so greatly for education and it was depressing to see that those who were making decisions about the school districts that affected my students negatively.  Not just that, but to have a government that doesn't support education?

Let me see if I can explain it in another way.  I care greatly about education and especially music education.  But when I was constantly running into obstacles and those obstacles were people who knew nothing about music or education?  It not only wore me down, but frankly it started to depress me.  I was disheartened going into work.  I found myself even in tears a few times.  My students deserved the best but they weren't getting that.

Here is what I saw when I was teaching in Arizona:  We had no money for substitute teachers, so when a teacher was sick, normally about 10-15 of the students would come to my classroom and sit (where there were no desks) while my kids sang but were ultimately distracted.  We had no money for paper.  Students had to bring their own and I couldn't make photo copies.  We weren't allowed to tell the students this because we didn't want to "alarm parents."  There was an agreement that there could not be more than 27 kinder students in a classroom, but the school board ignored that because of the budget.  Suddenly, kinder classrooms had 36 students in it while sharing an aid between 3 other classrooms.  And the class sizes were expected to get bigger.  Worried about standardized tests, students were not allowed to take field trips for a month before the standardized test.  Two weeks before the test, all learning was put away and the students reviewed for the test.  Yes, two weeks of review for a standardized test.  And when I left, the next year they were taking away prep hours for many of the teachers.  And at the end of the school day, all teachers were assigned to duties.  This meant that any prep work and/or grading was to be done completely at home.  Not even a chance to do it during school hours.

And not that it matters, but my insurance was not much better than it is now (and it's awful now) and my pay was low (and potential growth in pay was only in tiny increments).  I wonder how anybody finds this kind education acceptable.  If my children were going to a public school district and the school board said it was okay to have 35 other kids in the classroom with my kinder child, I would pull my children and put them in a private school.  Or I would teach them at home.  Or honestly, we would find a different school district.  But John and I are lucky- we will have options for our future children.  What about the parents who don't have that option?  Why do their children deserve less than any one else's?

So I wish there wasn't a strike.  But if the teachers don't make demands for better schools and show they are serious, what other options do they have?  Continue to "discuss"?  How far would that get them?

In the end, I firmly believe that the wrong people are making decisions about education.  I think the educators should be making the decisions.  Ultimately they are the experts.  And believe it or not, teachers are normally creative problem solvers.  I would trust them.